Today is Monday, September 2, 2024. The protests in Israel over the killing of six Israeli hostages deepened today, as hundreds of thousands of protesters took to the streets in fresh fury over the government’s failure to secure a ceasefire-for-hostages deal with Hamas. An online article covering the intense demonstrations entitled “Netanyahu defiant as protesters demanding a ceasefire-for-hostages deal bring Israel to a halt” was written by Helen Regan, Irene Nasser, Tamar Michaelis, Dana Karni, Andrew Raine, and Rob Picheta, and it is summarized here.

Demonstrations could be seen in Jerusalem, Tel Aviv, Caeasarea and other sites across the country, fueled by the killing in Gaza of six hostages, whose bodies were retrieved by Israeli soldiers this weekend.

Several gatherings targeted the homes of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, with protesters lighting fires and chanting: “You are the leader – you are guilty!” near one of Netanyahu’s private residences in Caesarea. In Tel Aviv, protesters outside the U.S. Embassy chanted “Shame” late into the evening, video showed.

Netanyahu has been accused of stalling efforts for a deal by some hostage families and their supporters. More than 100 hostages, including 35 believed to be dead, are still being held in Gaza – the vast majority of them taken during Hamas’s October 7 attack on Israel, when some 1,200 people were killed and more than 200 taken captive.

The scenes outside the Israeli leader’s homes culminated a day of anger that brought much of the country to a halt, following a call by the country’s largest labor union, known as Histadrut, to shut down the “entire” economy. Flights in and out of Tel Aviv’s Ben Gurion International Airport were also stopped for two hours.

Despite the protests taking place outside his various homes, Netanyahu struck a defiant tone, batting away criticisms – including from U.S. President Joe Biden – that he is not doing enough to secure a deal. He asked for “forgiveness” from the families of the six hostages for failing to bring them home, but insisted it should be Hamas that “has to make the concessions.”

Monday saw the largest general strike to have taken place in Israel since March 2023, when there was a similar mass walkout over Netanyahu’s controversial attempts to overhaul the country’s judiciary.

According to union Histadrut, hundreds of thousands of Israelis joined the protests today, just a day after half a million took to the streets on Sunday for what protest organizers said was one of the biggest nationwide protests since the outbreak of Israel’s war on Hamas. Israeli police said they have seven demonstrators in Tel Aviv for “violating public order and disrupting traffic.”

Netanyahu’s recalcitrant stance here has thrown further doubt on the negotiations for a ceasefire-for-hostages deal.

Even before the killing of the six hostages, the talks had bogged down, with one key disagreement centering on control of a border area known as the Philadelphi corridor.

The embattled prime minister claims control of the 1.4-kilometer (8.7-mile) strip of land along Gaza’s border with Egypt is needed to prevent Hamas from resuming arms smuggling through tunnels underneath it. However, the deployment of Israeli troops along the corridor has been a major bone of contention between Israel and Hamas in the ceasefire talks, with Hamas saying Israeli troops must withdraw from the border zone.

In defiance, Netanyahu stated, “Hamas doesn’t want us to be there and that’s why I insist on being there.”

The relative of one of the hostages who was shot dead in southern Gaza also blamed the prime minister and his stance on the corridor for their deaths. Gil Dickmann, the cousin of Carmel Gat, told CNN that the Israeli government “cold-bloodedly” crossed a “red line” by prioritizing the corridor over the lives of the hostages.

Netanyahu stated defiantly, “We’re not going to withdraw from the Philadelphi corridor,” at a press conference today. He added, “The axis of evil needs the Philadelphi corridor. We need to have it under our control.”

Disagreements over the corridor are only one of the splits within the cabinet over the conduct of the war that have become increasingly public and rancorous in recent months.

American officials described new urgency in reaching a deal. U.S. national security adviser Jake Sullivan said while meeting the families of Americans held hostage that “the next few days will be critical” in the push to free those still held by Hamas.

In conjunction with the strikes, the funeral of Hersh Goldberg-Polin, one of the six hostages found dead, was held in Jerusalem today. Speaking at the ceremony, Jon Goldberg-Polin said he hoped his son’s death would be “the fuel that will bring home the remaining 101 hostages.”

In a moving eulogy, the grieving father said, “Hersh, we failed you. We all failed you. You would not have failed you. You would have pushed harder for justice. You would have worked harder to understand the other, to bridge differences.”

The grieving father continued his tribute to his young son who died at the hands of Palestinian militants, “The 23 years of life that we had with you were a blessing. We now will work to make your legacy a similar blessing. You were a really great guy. I love you.”

The country’s teachers’ union said it would not join the strike, according to a statement from the union, though support staff at schools did.

However, Israel’s biggest universities joined the strike, including the Hebrew University of Jerusalem and Tel Aviv University.

May the unnecessary deaths of these recent hostages and the outbreak of these countrywide protests result in a ceasefire in the war on Hamas. May the remaining hostages be finally freed, unharmed. It’s very easy to understand Israelis’ frustration over this horrible situation. It’s almost a year and so many people have needlessly died. It’s time for the suffering to end!

Stay safe and be well.